I never thought it would happen to me, but a few weeks ago I found myself lying on my bed, talking to a strange woman. I was having a nice lucid conversation with her, and then it was instant lights out. No preview, no grasping at my chest, no histronics, just instant unconscious.

What physiological reason caused me to go from a thinking state to one of instant loss of consciousness when the heart attack hit?

I would have thought I would have had at least some time for a good chest grabbing, wide eyed look of despair, or just some great histrionics, but I was denied all this.

a data set of one is not much to form a hypothesis on.

sibeen said:

I never thought it would happen to me, but a few weeks ago I found myself lying on my bed, talking to a strange woman. I was having a nice lucid conversation with her, and then it was instant lights out. No preview, no grasping at my chest, no histronics, just instant unconscious.

What physiological reason caused me to go from a thinking state to one of instant loss of consciousness when the heart attack hit?

I would have thought I would have had at least some time for a good chest grabbing, wide eyed look of despair, or just some great histrionics, but I was denied all this.

Maybe you did grab your chest with a wide eyed look of dispair but you cannot recall the last 50 seconds prior to falling unconscious, the brain never got a chance to store it away in long term storage.

No blood to the brain.

Peak Warming Man said:

No blood to the brain.

Aye, sudden loss of blood pressure can lead to instant lights out.

AwesomeO said:

Maybe you did grab your chest with a wide eyed look of dispair but you cannot recall the last 50 seconds prior to falling unconscious, the brain never got a chance to store it away in long term storage.

Nah, SWMBO reckons I just went rigid and nothing else.

Who was the strange woman?

kii said:

Who was the strange woman?

Ambulance officer.

Oh, so it was a physical woman and not a ghost?

Divine Angel said:

Oh, so it was a physical woman and not a ghost?

As she was vigourously banging on my chest shortly afterwards I can be fairly certain that she was not a figment of my imagination.

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

Peak Warming Man said:

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

I’ve got a vague memory of meeting 72 bogans.

sibeen said:

kii said:

Who was the strange woman?

Ambulance officer.

Ah, so she was supposed to be there? Not just some random person off the street .

sibeen said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

I’ve got a vague memory of meeting 72 bogans.

I’ve heard of double vision but 72 is just extreme.

Divine Angel said:

sibeen said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

I’ve got a vague memory of meeting 72 bogans.

I’ve heard of double vision but 72 is just extreme.

can’t help you with that one, I was fast asleep when my heart tried to stop.
regaining consciousness in the middle of it is a weird sensation though

when you go you don’t know you’ve gone , it all just disappears , no pain. any anxiety you had disappears too there’s no darkness , no white lights just nothingness and everything you know disappears too.

Before a heart attack people often have a feeling of foreboding, apparently.

Peak Warming Man said:

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

you never see the speed cameras in those tunnels either that steal your soul

perhaps related

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncope_(medicine)

AwesomeO said:

Peak Warming Man said:

No blood to the brain.

Aye, sudden loss of blood pressure can lead to instant lights out.

I use to spend a lot of time and money to get those conditions.

you spelt “unconscious” wrong in the thread title.

I c.

It’s quite simple really, Jesus wanted you to carry the drinks for the Heaven XI

My understanding is that the crushing-chest-pain/left-arm-pain stereotype is actually pretty unusual, and that moderate symptoms like a feeling of indigestion, pale, clammy, sweaty, nauseous, breathless, anxious, pain anywhere between the jaw and hips, and a sense of impending doom, are vastly more common.

The brain switches off 20-30sec after the O2 stops. You might be very lucky the Ambo was there.

A friend of Mrs. Rule popped his clogs a few weeks ago. 48yo bloke, two little kids and a baby, rang his wife when he should have rang an ambulance.

Mr Speedy’s uncle complained of pain between his shoulder blades in the hours before he collapsed and died from a heart attack.

I hadn’t heard about the impending doom thing. I guess that’s just another way to say you simply feel “yuck”.

Speedy said:

Mr Speedy’s uncle complained of pain between his shoulder blades in the hours before he collapsed and died from a heart attack.

I hadn’t heard about the impending doom thing. I guess that’s just another way to say you simply feel “yuck”.

Those symptoms are a worry I feel like that quite often

Anxiety attacks can also share those symptoms.

yeah saying a ‘feeling of impending doom’ is not really clinical …

Speedy said:

I hadn’t heard about the impending doom thing. I guess that’s just another way to say you simply feel “yuck”.

I guess there’s some variation, but the feeling is quite distinct. It’s a profound sense of uneasiness.

Divine Angel said:

Anxiety attacks can also share those symptoms.

Anxiety attacks can also be heart attacks.

Arts said:

yeah saying a ‘feeling of impending doom’ is not really clinical …

My understanding is that it’s an identifiable symptom common in a few conditions.

Rule 303 said:

Speedy said:

I hadn’t heard about the impending doom thing. I guess that’s just another way to say you simply feel “yuck”.

I guess there’s some variation, but the feeling is quite distinct. It’s a profound sense of uneasiness.

Like an impending sense of doom?

poikilotherm said:

Like an impending sense of doom?

Very close.

Peak Warming Man said:

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

I do. But I wasn’t near death at the time, I was deliberately following a mental path of maximum fear, until I defeated it.

mollwollfumble said:

Peak Warming Man said:

You probably don’t remember walking along a tunnel towards a light, a blindingly white light, either.

I do. But I wasn’t near death at the time, I was deliberately following a mental path of maximum fear, until I defeated it.

My dad described it to me as;

My mates were driving away on smooth roads with booze and birds, calling “come with us”

I had to tell them that I was compelled to climb the rocky cliff to the light that was drawing me.

all the time, one doctor was walking away to wash his hands saying, “he’s gone” The other, a visiting specialist, put his hands in the open cavity and massaged the heart.

Dad survived for the rest of my life until I reached 17. I was one at the time he had his guts out on a table beside him.

this is quite good sibeen.

Medical MCQ heart rhythm disorders

video

it doesn’t hurt to black out